Newcastle Missed Out On Another Two Top Players Last Month

Derek LLambias should give a lot more interviews to the local press, because when he gives the interviews he drops in a few facts now and again which can make big news, and tells us some of what’s going on behind the scenes at the club.

Loic Remy – one player we missed out on last month
He’s now out for two months at QPR with groin injury
Today, in a number of exclusive interviews in the Evening Chronicle, Derek has said that Newcastle missed out on another two top players who would have been top of the list, and in addition to the other five players we brought in – so we suppose Loic Remy was one of those – but who’s the other – Siem de Jong from Ajax maybe?

Who do you think it could have been?

This is what Derek told Lee Ryder of the Evening Chronicle:

“Am I proud we are top spenders in the window?” “No, success in the window is not about the amount you spend, it is the quality and value you bring in.” “Looking at our working model, I had planned for two of those signings to arrive in the summer.”

“We missed out on two others by the way. The other two would have been on top of the five we brought in.” “They were not next, they would have been on top.” “We just had to bring things forward. Normally we would not do that.”

“The injury list was terrible.” “I spoke to Graham Carr and he said in football you will not see this again.” “He felt what was happening with our squad was unprecedented as far as injuries were concerned.” “We felt we had enough because we had finished fifth with the squad we had and we had added to it.”

“We keep rolling, so the new players we have now, two of those deals were lined up for the summer.” “It is difficult, but we looked at the current situation and we had to make changes to bring things forward.” “So we can bring it forward sometimes if we need to.”

“In November we had our targets, we just had to think how soon we were going to bring them in.” “They did not just crop up in November, we identified them a long time ago.” “If you look at Sissoko, Graham’s first report was from 2010.” “Graham knew about him from when he was 18.”

“We follow players for years.” “It is a question of bringing things forward quicker than we had planned to sometimes, like we did in January.” “This club’s finances are strong and we have a very strong owner behind it.” “So we can bring it forward sometimes if we need to.”

It’s very good good to know our finances are now a lot stronger than they were even a couple of years ago – but we must keep in European competition to keep the strong revenue streams coming in.

One of those players we missed out on was definitely Loic Remy, who took the big money at QPR, and of course he’s now out for two months with a groin problem, and we know we were also after 19 year-old Florian Thauvin of Bastia, who joined Lille – but he would have been part of the Development squad.

And we have to think that some of the negotiations that Newcastle had last month was to line up future dealings for the summer, and one of those could well be Siem de Jong -0 who would be a great summer signing for Newcastle.

166 responses so far ↓

In Derek llambias we trust. Since day one I have had faith in Ashley. People on here think he’s an idiot. He’s not at all. He’s a successful businessman all his life and he will be successful here to. In fact he is. People that hate on Ashley should think about them selves and realise can you do what he does

Ashley & Lambias has admitted that he fell woefully short as an owner the last time we got relegated.

This season, Lambias admitted they made mistakes in the summer by not strengthening the squad.
We were again flirting with relegation.

Ashley has come along way since he took us down and the finances appear healthy. But he still has a long way to go before he proves he has this club at heart and does not settle for premiership survival season on season to increase the coffers and siphon off the money.

Trust is gained over a long period. You cannot honestly state that Ashley wants to move this club into the top 4 where players demand huge wages and the squad needs to be full of quality.

So far, I have only witnessed him provide a good first 11 and and the rest of the squad are poor.

Please tell me whether you trust Ashley to make a solid premier team or a champions league contender.

I don’t really care how nice a man Ashley is, as long as he succeeds at Newcastle. We have had too many owners in the past who have had their priorities wrong. As a businessman, he is obviously very successful, and that is what Nufc is….a business. Even though the economy is weak, to put it mildly, his businesses continue to grow. Too many businesses are built on sand. What he is doing at Newcastle is to create a rock solid foundation, and build from there. I hope there comes a day when some people have to eat a big wedge of humble pie.

Ashley has come along way since he took us down and the finances appear healthy. But he still has a long way to go before he proves he has this club at heart and does not settle for premiership survival season on season to increase the coffers and siphon off the money.

Sorry but look at the quality of players in teams like bolton, fulham, stoke etc
these are the teams that play premiership survival every season. NOT US. Why would we be buying such high quality of players and international players if Ashley’s goal was mere survival?A mere 13/14th position finish every season?

Also I have never understood this idea that Ashley sells our top players. The only top player he sold was Carroll who is btw not a top player anymore and wasn’t proven and we got a monumental fee for him and we replaced him with Cisse and Ba. Ba sold because we had to due to release clause and replaced him with a more willing team player who will play on the wing, Gouffran. All other sales have been people who haven’t been good enough or were upgraded.

Why should Ashley or Llambias keep the fans updated right through the year??????

Why should it be neccesary to inform fans of transfer dealings??????

You’re there to support the team on the pitch there is no benefit in keeping fans updated on everything gong on behinid the scenes….in fact its counter productive as you’re effectvely informaing the footballing world on your plans.

Its drives me round the bend that fans think they should kow every piece of the clubs business.

This window should prove to you that you need to let the club get on with their job and you get on with yours…supporting the team on the pitch.

yep completely agree.
i think they have proven they will get the right players in and that they will be real quality whoever they sign so i would rather be blind and no one know who we are even thinking about nvm who’s on the list untill we have signed them.

maybe after window close they could inform us that we tried to sign blablabla when it doesnt come off but i think this way there is a lot more success in signing players.

My point is, a club our size should be trying to qualify for the champions league. I appreciate you can’t do that overnight. But I have my doubts that he will ever pay the big wages required and fill the squad with quality instead of having a first 11.
You’ve just witnessed us teetering above relegation and running out of games. These players should have been brought in when we were 5th last season and pushed on but again he gambled and tried to do it on the cheap.

When I say premier league survival I mean anything from 7th to 17th.

To progress and play in Europe requires more investment. Europa to a lesser extent but it still requires a bigger stronger squad full of quality.

I just don’t have blind faith that Ashley will try and take us to those levels as I haven’t seen any evidence of it.

We won’t qualify for Europe this season and that was down to lack of investment at the right time.

If we hasn’t been teetering with relegation then I doubt if the players he brought in would have been bought.

Lets see in the summer. I base my opinions on what I’ve witnessed not on blind faith. 😉

In my view Ashley does want us to be a top four club on a strict wage bill, arsenal done it didnt they with all their French players surely we can do as well. People forget our team is quite young still and is just getting better and better

toonincheeck,
If you think that it’s unfair to criticize the board after last summer’s fiasco,then I have to take it that you have enjoyed watching exactly the same players minus injuries serve up the dross wevsaw at home to Villa,Norwich,QPR etc.

If Ashley didnt want us to be a top four team why would we have a team full off world class players. Cabaye tiote when on form. Sissoko Ben arfa colcinni krul cisse who will come good mbwia. That is a world class team and don’t forget we have Anita who will be a star to and lets not forget our very own messi the one and only shollaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ameobi

For one, he is not skimming money out the club, the finances prove it.

Two, we are building, slowly, and with mistakes being made I agree, but we are getting there. They said he had a five year plan for Champions League qualification dint he, we are in year 3 or 4 of that are we, so give him time.

We missed on two top targets, two that would have come in with rest we got. That shows something does it not?

People that are idiots and don’t know what they are doing don’t become billionaires, because then I’d be one 😉

Tor, as usual we are in agreement, Greizmann would be a great signing but pricey (and perhaps similar to what we have, but younger). Holland is loaded with talent, but is an even bigger step down that ligue 1 so adapting may prove difficult for some. I personally am a big admirer of Adam Maher who I think Arsenal are tracking but wouldn’t be surprised to see us go after him. Also I think we may still be in for Virgil Van Dijk who was linked with Brighton in the transfer window (which would have been a hell of a coup for them).

I have a slight bug bear about people on here recommending players and getting their names wrong – if you don’t know their name and consistently get in wrong then how can you claim to know about the player, unless you are actually my dad who for the entire time Nick the Greek was at the club called him Dabidas – a bit like his trainers at the time
Rant over.

Ashley has my backing the 2 things that got up my nose with him was the way the keegan affair was handled and the naming of stadium which has since been rectified, to say that he is syphoning money out of the club is utter bullshit the only time he will get his gift loan back interest free i might add is when he sells the club with the loan included in the sale price, he is running the club as it should have been run, before he bought off sheperd and hall

Ashley has made some huge errors with the fans, and some with the team. But he has also brought us forward in many ways to. The key here is learning from his mistakes, and this window has been an improvement on last time we went down, so the proof will be the summer. For now he appears to be learning.

As for having the clubs best interest at heart, I think for the moment it is aligned with his own personal interest, so we will see the benefit. As long as he grows NUFC the club and brand, his Sports Direct brand will grow to. Win Win.

If he keeps strengthening the club, both in terms of a business and a sports team, then he has my backing.

I can’t wait to sit at St James Park and watch our team be led out by Yohan Cabaye wearing the captains arm band. People talk about all of our bargain buys…he is the biggest bargain at just over £4m. Our best and most important player. If he stays here for many years he will become an NUFC legend in the same calibre of Speed, Robert, Lee, Given etc.

Of course Ashley wants us to be a top four club.
But he has also said – NUFC cannot compete with the big spenders.
As we NUFCers are genuine people, I think most of us don’t really want a rich billionaire a la ManC or, a few years ago, Chelski, to come in and take over our club.
It’s not the kind of club we are.

Life is great with something to complain about – and a cold beer while you do.

We have to trust in Carr (et al) to come up with quality at sensible prices –
and UEFA to follow through with their stated FFP policies.

I dont think there is anybody who could say the club currently is run in a shitty way.

We are now on a sound financial footing, have a first team squad that is superb, full of outstanding footballers and individuals, if the team continues to perform like they did on Saturday, this may well become the best period of all time in Newcastle’s modern era.

When we get this bumper sky deal and we have more cashflow, first up would be to portect our purples from other teams, i.e. give a bit more out in wages to the likes of Cabaye, Ben10, Cisse, Santon and the rest.

Really looking forward to the Spuds game. Hope Anita or Marv gets a start instead of Perch and Jonas respectively.

For all the transfers coming in the summer like striker and co our biggest worry is collo going. Replacing him wont be easy his effort and calmness wont be easy to find. There is no one like him at the club

Remember we had Didi Hamann for a season?
I hope that will not happen with us again for Cabaye or WORST Sissoko.

When Hamann came, i was thinking this tall lad is going to be a great signing and it prove to be. Before Liverpool snatch it away from us, (of course the player wanted to go as well)

But if we can built a good team from now (Just like Spurs) then players will start to get more involve and would love their international mates or friends to join them at the club which will only be good for us.

Sissoko is just like Hamann, he can bring the ball forward and bring the team to switch to an attacking mode. With Cabs, the hardworking midfielder along side it will only be good.

Hope the History would not repeat itself. We are about to go forward and upwards. Make these players stay together and add more players to them. Make them feel that this is the club going forward.

@44 Agree mate just keep reading every one going on about a striker. For me keeping collo is just as important or we could struggle at the back. Who ever plays with collo they play better as when collo has been injured ST and Willo defo not good together mbiwa we shall see

Homegrown Players need to be priority this summer, even City and Arsenal have english players in the spine of the team, i understand that they are all over priced but i get the feeling the English lads at the club may start to feel isolated we this continued surge of foreighn aquisitions. unlikely to happen as Carr clearly lives in a lovely villa in france tho hahaha

You know when to pop out of your bunker, the transfer window went well. When things are bad you hide away. Be there all the time, not just when you feel safe. All you have this time is cover your mistakes. Still don’t trust you or the fat one.

i think the problem is that england just do not produce the worlds best talent anymore and the ones they do the teams with bigger rep manu/chelsea/arsenal/manc get hold of them as they can afford them and can afford the gamble.

saylor come through and he imo is one of englands best cb (not saying the best as i think there are 4-5 ahead of him) and we have young cambell who i think will do great .inman is another scottish lad with a hell of a lot of potential,

and not to forget the younger lads who if they do not get picked for there 1st team internationals become home grown talent after so many years.

fact is unless you pay 10-20mil like most do for untested young english players who may not make the grade i.e. dan gosling we can only scout whats about

Really hope we do bring in more youngsters to be placed in the development squad, nd hope we offload some of the development players tht should be squeezing into the 1st team by the end of next season, but simply aren’t good enough such as.

Fergy ( used to think he was gonna be a good one )
Amalfitano ( why Carr recommended him puzzles me )
Paul dummet
Nile ranger
Dan gosling

Or maybe send some out on loan to championship teams, which is the experience tht all young players need.

Home Grown is classed as anyone who has trained with a English(British?) club for three seasons prior to the age of 21.

Guidetti at Man City classes as home grown, he would be an interesting signing.

We have some good young players coming through, Campbell, Streete Satko, Gillihead Alnwick, Woodman, Armstrong have all played youth internationals. Get the coaching staff right and we have a chance of at least 4 top players there.

I agree to get rid of 4 of your 5. Amalfitano I would give another year, maybe he has taken time to adjust or settle, so can have next year for me. The others can all leave, I’d probably include Newton in that group.

As for Vukic Abeid and Sammi, they should be pushing for first team. In the same bracket as Fergie. They have spent to long not playing competitive footy. Loans should happen at 18/19 to develop them. After that it is generally a case of putting them in the shop window.

yep we are doing better for prospects than many teams even some of the bigger ones.
been looking into other teams and it seems as though the lads that come through for the club’s a-la sterling/chamberlin they actually buy from lower league teams and not bring them through themselves as we do with many of ours.

yep agreed amalf not had long enough yet and a year on loan for most of those players hurts nothing.

vukic i’m a little on the line with as he’s had my hopes up for many many years now and i think i have only seen him play well maybe 3 or so games ! but i have had it in good authority the lad is our best prospect. (yet to be convinced ………….”still”)

A lot of top young talent is taken from other clubs. Sterling has been vaunted as a product of Liverpools youth system, even though he came from QPR the summer before last for big money.

We do bring a lot through, but most drop away due to our poor development of players. Donaldson captained England youth teams, God knows where he is now. He is one that with the right coaching and loaning out to the right clubs at the right time could have been a big player for us.

I don’t want the same to happen to the next crop, as it is the main reason Sammi, Fergie et al have failed to progress as their talents could have.

Yeah, that was about the last time I heard any news on him as well. If he is to progress, it won’t be at City, so were he still looking like a good prospect you would think he would be keen to join. After all, he would have spent a couple of years here when he was 5/6.

aye think they failed with fergie in trying to make him something he is not in beefing him up (the lad has lost a lot of pace now for extra muscle that he did not need imo as i thought of him as a speedy winger with a good cross.

and yes your right hopefully they have sorted that development out now as the spl/crewe and bradford are doing our lads the world of good now

Usual Llambias flannel and spin. The facts are we spent £14m net over the year and that doesn’t include the amazing disappearing £35m from the Carroll sale. Judge people on what they do, not on what they say, talk is cheap

His 5 yr plan started in 2007 and was severely knocked back by relegation thru his incompetence. He admits that. 😉

However, all I am saying is, until I see real drive to make us a top 4 side, or at least a regular Europa team then I have to base my opinions on what I’ve seen so far.

If he continues his building in the summer then he will go some way in convincing me and like minded people that he has got real ambition.

You are assuming we will be challenging for a champions league position based on what?
I would have thought finishing 5th last season and qualifying for Europe would have been the time to invest and not when forced to in order to avoid relegation.

Second thing;

Apart from 2 good games by Cabaye recently, why are some gushing over him. ?

I’ve witnessed him play a handful of very good performances since he arrived but nowhere near enough to give him the adulation he gets.
He’s a tidy footballer who occasionally pulls out a lovely pass.

I’ve never seen him get the game by the scruff of the neck like Gerrard and turn games round almost single handedly.

never understand why people say we have hardly spent any of the carroll money, I mean look who we have brought in for next to nothing! would people rather we are spending loads of money for the sake of it? more money we save the more contingency we have!

croftus, all smart businesses monitor and communiate with their customers. There’s no need for chapter and verse, but small snippets regularly help the fans integrate more with where the club is going and buy into its vison. I;m delighted to hear from Llambias. Troy, I’ve always felt that NUFC is only a vehicle for Ashley, but his work in the window has seriously impressed me. Who knows, if we did qualify for the Champs League, maybe that would allow him to pay higher wages? I havent been happier as a Toon fan in ages, although my criticism of Ma. Llambias and Pardew in previous months is totally justified.

I think Vukic is not coming through as the club would have liked – clearly not helped by injuries and lack of time playing. I’m not overly optimistic of his chances, in the same was I wasnt overly optimistic about Gosling and Obertan. We might ge a big improvement from Obertan now though, with the respect he will have for his newly arrived compatriots.

I agree on Vuckic and Gosling, I think their footballing futures remain away from our club, Vuckic had potential and still does but unless he gets sustained playing time he will never develop. I would like to see him loaned to a Championship team or perhaps a much smaller Prem team and see how he gets on but it isn’t looking likely.

Gosling has been badly hit by injuries and will never get back to his early promise in my opinion and with the vast options we have in CM ahead of him in the pecking order I can see him being moved on in the summer.

Obertan has been given chances and has shown few glimpses of quality. He now has Goofy, Marv, HBA and Jonas ahead of him for a wing position so he needs to up his game but out of the three (Vuckic, Gosling and Obertan) I have highest hopes for Obertan.

Monument Mal, you obviously harbour big grudges towards MA and DL and they are going to take some shaking off.

Audits show we lost average 34 million in three seasons previous at NUFC, this has been mentioned on the blog before of course, so thats 100 million quid in losses covered in an interest free loan that otherwise would have cost us anywhere upwards of 10 million a season in interest, protecting MA’s purchase of course but its a hell of an effort.

Thing is when we got the AC money everybody was screaming about were the money was goin and what was he doing with it ie taking it out the club and putting it in his other businesses etc, the cella has nor took a penny out of NUFC every audit has shown that.

I am just saying it is mot a one eat street concerning finances, he will continue to build our great club and we will go forward agAin as we have the last three years, admittedly a set back first half of this set back these last 4 months, bur hopefully a lesson learn and i think it will have been learned.

I am no big fan of our manager but i will stick with him to prove me wrong hopefully, its not all bad Mal we have some top quality personel now at the toon and will continue in thar manor, a tough final part of the season but if we get away from it we can really push on and in all honesty i believe DL and believe the vision they have for the club.

It might be too late for Gosling maybe we could use him as make weight for another good young player from the championship??

i actually had high hopes for Ferguson and Vuckic but the way the club has been set up in the past we have probably ruined their careers by not developing them properly for example Ferguson should have been out on loan last 3 seasons so he would have had enough games to make an impact but because of squad strength the youngsters have had to stay and play when not ready

Really hope the same does not happen to Adam Campbell as the kid has great potential and he should be going out on loan next season not hanging about the 1st team not playing also Remi Streete needs to go on loan as well!!

I do like the way we are loaning players to the SPL as every team plays the ball on the deck and every team works hard although there are teams in the championship who we could loan to as well

The summer window is going to be quite busy for us I think 2 purples will leave in the summer which will be Colocinni and one other for a decent fee and also Simpson and Ranger leaving as well

Vuckic can improve IF we can loan him out let him handle the midfield play before he gets injured again.

Gosling don’t seen to be the player i saw when he appears for Everton. He seems to put on some weight and his speed and drive wasnt there still. (what is wrong with him? Injury could have cost him)

When he was playing for Everton, just look at how he drive the ball forward …thats what is saw in him as a good player but haven seen that since in black and white.

Its our club good at youth development? Whats the different between ours and ManUtd/ Liverpool?
(They loan players out or their training regime was different e.g courses personal skill development.. etc?)

every player has his price at every club, we are no different, but people have latched onto what happened with Carroll and now believe that everyone will be sold if a bid comes in for them, don’t forget we turned down bids of 20 million and 24 million from Spurs for Carroll and only sold when we were offered three times the amount that the boy was worth, so 20 million would not get anyone Sissoko from us.
If Ashley’s plan is for us to get into the Champions League then we won’t be selling our top players

Mike and Del have ridden some rocky roads since taking hold of the wheel and have clearly endured episodes where trying to mix their own business values with that of the football business establishment has seen them make awful decisions, the treatment of KK was in hindsight due to a complete misunderstanding of what all parties were trying to achieve – KK head firmly stuck in the era of buy big win big and the new owners realising this wasn’t their man for their job. Stadium naming not a good PR gamble. AC and the missing transfer millions is a redundant issue imo its Ashleys right to manipulate assets as he sees fit. After carefully steering to a top 5 on frugality, their over zealous penny-pinching backfired spectacularly when the unimaginably long odds of multiple key injuries came up. Cue emergency January and here we are still not certain of Mikes Motives.

I would suggest standing back and looking at their tenure as a whole – I think it reflects a determibation to have a successful business, and an elevated brand through success on the field and astute long -term trading. As such I think they are doing a better job overall than the majority of club owners.

I can see why Llambias et al shy away from public comments. When they admit mistakes this is spun to to be a confession of incompetence, and let’s face it there are quite a lot of folks out there so eager to use whatever they say against them.

I think if you prop up the club with your own cash you should be allowed to make the odd mistake or two. BTW – one of the ‘mistakes’ was not to forecast the unprecedented injuries we had and purchase extra cover in the summer. I think ANY team would suffer with the extent of players we had unavailable.

For those that are still jumping on the AC sale bandwagon….. don’t judge prudent purchasing with a lack of ambition. For the sale of AC we have purchased our current French lads this window, plus Cabaye and Tiote etc. I’d say that is FANTASTIC business and stengthens the club both on the playing front AND financially.

Again, for those still on the fence just look at the playing staff and club finances before Ashley took over and where they are now. Do I love Ashly? no way, but I do appreciate what he is trying to do and think he deserves credit for all that he has done right.

Ashley has got many, many things wrong at the club and has made himself a lot of enemy’s along the way, BUT we still have a club in the top flight something that was under serious threat under Sheppard as he was driving us into financial meltdown meaning we were another Leeds UTD in waiting, with the FFP rules coming in we are set up perfectly for the future

As one nearer to JfA than Bills-son over the last year or so I now do think we are after regular CL placings in the EPL. MAshley wants to do it his way – which is by following the Arsenal model of achieving within a budget and that includes a long term manager.
Whinger ain’t the best either but he’s pretty good. AP certainly ain’t top drawer but has the potential to be consistent top four. They have all made mistakes. And they will make more – but as long as they learn from them that’s the best we can hope for.

If you looks at most owners or consortia owning EPL clubs then I can’t see a better set up than we have. I deffo would not want Shepherds or Hall back under any circumstances.

I am going to stick my neck out and say we will be consistent top 4 material within three seasons. We only need three or four top players and to up the quality of development. We all have to remember KK destroyed that. He was not the Messiah, however much we loved him being here.

However, I still think Llambias is the weakest link and I agree with TS that we need to invigorate the coaching by bringing in an Assistant Manager from Europe – I still have a soft spot for our original “Frog on the Tyne”.

Comparing Cabaye with Gerrard is not quite a fair comparison. Without Gerrard the Fools would have had a bleak decade as he is real world class. I’d put Lampard in that class too. Cabaye is international class and still with potential – he ain’t quite the finished article. I hope he’ll be our next captain mind as he is a real on pitch leader.
Cabaye is less a total box to box player like those guys and more a playmaker with good dead ball skills. Sissoko is more like Gerrard and Lampard in style imo.

I’d love Yo to make his career with us and not move on as I believe we will win trophies with him as core of our team

Lampard has never been “world class”. That’s a load of nonsense – he’s past it and has been past it for quite some time now. Gerrard is twice the player. Just ask any Chelsea fan, although they love him scoring goals he’s often giving the ball away and making rash challenges.

Just a glorified Nolan in my opinion. Fat Frank is of the most over-rated players of the last ten years certainly.

On Cabaye as Captain, he really plays with fire in his belly. He is whole hearted on the pitch and when Ramires lunged in two footed at Jonas, Cabaye was their on scene making the ref aware of how bad a challenge it was. I just think the lad will really play like a Captain and a leader with the armband.

We now have three great centre midfielders who are technically great, can all sit in front of the back 4, all pick a pass to create a goal, all run into space if it appears in front of them, all rotate if another is out of position, these 3 midfielders are Cabaye, Sissoko and Anita and should be our first choice in the middle of the park.

Tiote and Perchy are Defensive midfielders that we dont really need if we are playing three in there. The three midfielders mentioned are superb and can do everything, please pick them Parsnip, please forget about the classical tackler, all our other midfielders can do that job, get our best players on the pitch.

Troy
Agreed. Wonder if there is scope though for MA to increase capacity as SJP? That would bring in additional revenue just not sure if there is more demand than 52,000 week in week out.
Think the club should sign a few promising players from Asia as that will improve our profile. Perhaps South Korea of Japan?

I think you guys are spot on in regards to Cabaye. Sometimes I wonder how we pried him from Lille in the first place.

I’ll be elated if MA has legitimately woken up and invests in the summer. I think Guti’s performance vs. Chelsea warrants another chance or two to prove he’s worth starting, but tbh I don’t think he has it anymore.

I hate how much Pardew favors him, probably because he’s a hardworker I assume and Pards has a little bias towards gritty, high work rate players, regardless of their foul ups.

Hopefully his habit of subbing off Gouffran is only to acclimate him to the EPL pace, and will stop, because his own pace and intelligence alone adds extra threat to our attack.

As far as the 1st team: a proper LW, a new CB, and another ST and we will be a properly good team.

2. They sold AC at a high price
I agreed (but that could also be because they were playing a dare game to up the price, i would not 100% think that they tried to keep AC, some mention that AC did summited a transfer requested)

For Sissoko and the rest of the 1st team guys…just hope the owner can keep and built on. Unless another 35million comes in again.

I’m not too sure what the answer is. I know that going forward we need to improve our revenues going fwd. Someone posted this rather long article that I have not got round to reading completely but the crux of the matter is despite a loyal set of supporters and a good turn out our commercial revenues are not as high as they should be. NUFC need to do what we’ve done in France elsewhere. We need to be more than a provincial club but a world brand….I think we have the ability but question decision made by the board. For example “Wonga” a loathsome pay day company that targets the very vulnerable in our society is not a name I’m proud of to be associated with our club! It also has 0% commercial appeal or brand appeal beyond the UK. I’d much rather take a smaller revenue stream with a bigger sponsor such as “Sony” as this would potentially improve our appeal and other commercial revenue streams.
I think there could be scope for an increased ground capacity but also think sometimes you buy a player for commercial appeal and not just their skills! A plucky foreign star from the far east would raise attention and more appeal from Asian countries who absolutely go mad about our league and footy.

Troy, 89Norcal – the chances of expanding the stadium are very low indeed. The area around the Strawberry are all listed buildings as are the buildings behind the ground. Then there is the problem of blocking light – its not allowed.

Sir John Hall had a major battle to get what we have – even threatened to build a new stadium on land he owns near the Metro Center and put a rail link into it!!

Then you have the economics – the cost of thw work on the Gallowgate End, just to get 5000 seat would be astronomic!! Would be nice, but cant see it!!

There’s loads of info on the net and the plans were all in place with Fred Shepherd. An expansion of the gallowgate would make it 60-62k.
The plan was to incorporate a casino and conference centre. Ashley bought the club and put it on hold.

It’s all on Wikipedia regarding SJP

It’s only the east stand that can’t be extended due to the listed buildings behind it.

The big difference is, Arsenal season ticket holders pay in excess of double to treble the cost for their season tickets than we pay.

There’s a huge gulf in match day revenue, not just cos of the extra 8k seats but ticket prices.

Our fans simply couldn’t afford those prices but the higher up the league we finish season on season obviously increases the demand.

Arsenal have qualified for the CL every season since Wenger has been there, something like 15 years or so. It’s got to be expected that they are more commercially viable for sponsors and fans paying more.

Good to see so many people out in force claiming what a good ambitious businessman Mike Ashley is, just a shame for him that most of you weren’t so supportive as we were car crashing toward a possible relegation and as for ambition, that could have been proved when we finished fifth from t9op not when we werefifth from bottom, and Dirk Llambias’s admission that we thought we had enough in the squad last summer fairly proves my theory that the idea not to bring anybody in was well thought out rather than a case of not being able “to get them over the line” I am not adverse to starting to believe in Mashleys regime but he has still to prove to me that our success is one of his priorities.

Ruddy, my fair criticism of MA, llambias and Pardew were totally justified. Those criticisms were in no way OTT or driven by crazy expectation. Here are some of them, over times.
-Appointing Kinnear.
Dumping on KK
Not communicating with Shearer or the fans re Shearers situation
Appointing idiots like Jiminez
The namingrights that never happened
Plastering SD all over the gaff
Not communicating with fans
Not searching europe wide for a great manager, and giving it to Pardew ( who had a great first season ) without seemingly interviewing 1 other candidate.
-Not investing in the summer ( despite loads of support from the blind men on this site and the mini accountants )

Pardew- I’ve liked him from day 1 when he handles the press so well, but his

-Pandering to Ba
-Changing team shape for thsi reason
-Playing 442 too often
-Using injuries as a main excuse when the performances of most players fell this season under his tenure, injured or not.
-Making excuses ( like blaming Senegal FA )

….all of these warranted criticism that was never OTT from me and many others.

In teh meantime, I’m thrilled that MA has shown that he DOES have ambition ( although lets see him spend well in the summer too ) and I’m pleased to see that Pardews confidence is back.

Tooninspain,
I am not ready to start believing until sufficient ambition is shown so therefore I will be keeping my username and yes btw where were you and your posts as we went on our worst ever start to the Premiership.

I see the much derided Toonbano has been writing another blog article. have to say, i have agreed with this guy for a while. He may seem to have a personal issue . hatred (?) for Pardew but most of his criticisms were fair and he makes an interesting point that llambias was nowehere after the Brighton mess, but now after 18 mill and two league wins and the upsurge, he comes out with a massive interview! I think there has been plenty of revisionism on this site since the excellent purchases, but as i have said earlier, many of the criticisms of Pardew and Ashley were reasonable. Still cant get over the stunning signings, or the fact that they will make the club even more attractive in the summer to guys like Bony and PEA….

Tooninspain,
Bonny lad (sic),you are very very wrong if you think I would rather see the team lose than do well to prove a point and the fact that you have suggested that I change my username shows that you are quite ignorant.

Ashley…..you need to:
1 Educate yourself as to what sic means.
2 Stop calling people ignorant, when you know in all honesty they aren’t.
3 Grow a pair
Now it’s well after midnight here in Madrid, so I won’t be available to carry on with this little exchange. Buenos noche hombre.

would any chairman at any football club not be ambitious and want there teams to do well no matter what there motives are (e.g. money)

i really do not understand how anyone can say any chairman wants there team to do badly as the higher and better a team does the more money the chairman gets (league position/more attractive to sponsors/more glory supporters/europe pot ect ect)

the reason fans are now getting behind ashley (like myself who have been neutral with him atm) is that he has now got involved with transfers which looks to me like he’s very motivated that he thinks he can do better then the person who’s job it is to do it.

and i will not call ashley for showing how much he wants us to do well !

he’s made mistakes and rectified them and there is no chairman we have had at the club i would rather have atm.

Croftus,
I am trying not to have a go at him as I am well pleased with the window and I am in no way suggesting that he would like to see the team do badly,it’s just that while people have recently started gushing on how good he is it is very hard to gauge his true intentions after spending while we looked like being relegated if you remember it was only three months ago that we were being told about our unique purple strategy.

The toon could drift in mid table without a huge investment and make considerable profits because of the new TV deal. So its whether Ashley wants to do that or push on and invest to take us where we should be and that’s Europa at the least.

The fact he didn’t in the summer when we were 5th makes me wonder what his ambitions are.

our wages are capped and we can get champs league players for that as we have them atm.

squad wise we are prob 2 strikers off 2 full teams capable of playing mid/high prem or champs league.

and as for the push i would have thought the players we just brought in and not sold anyone was proof enough that we wanted to improve the squad and first team by miles in hopes of getting as high as we could !

and we missed out on remy and pea after qpr stole one and a bid was rejected.

just how does someone prove he does not want to lose his own money by not getting as high up the table as possible ?

Troy Stavers,
Nothing would make me happier than to say fairplay Mashley you’ve got it right at last but so far he hasn’t done enough for me to be able to say that,if we have a good summer and not fed endless BS I will stsrt to believebin him.

what you have got to remember is MA and DL are not football experts there buisnes men . MA has already gone down pleasing the fans route by getting KK in and that poison dwarf denis wise and look where that got us i was never happy on us getting KK the guy walks out on every team soon as it get to tough. shearer aswell as much as i love him as a footballer hes not cut out for manergment.all them decisions got us relagated. So i think mike ashly now has just thought f its my bat my ball im going to run it my way. And rightly or wrongly hes done that and good on him even if hes still trying to sell the club at least hes made us an attractive investment for any future buyers plus were back in the top 20 richest clubs so alls good plus with the new ffp coming in to affect we will be in a great postion of strengh

ashley does not need to spend he has made the club self sufficiant (we obv do not see where all the money goes e.g. overheads/bonuses and prob countless other things)

i have no doubt that the 12mil just spent came from the club and not ashleys pocket but the better the club do the more money its worth hence ashley is worth more.

we are one of a few clubs again last year that fell in profit and again we got stronger as a team nvm the situation we are in at the begining of the season the squad did not get weaker when most of us expected it to guthrie and best were the only 2 players of use to go and anita and bigi came in (things just have not fell our way this year)

and even though we should have signed some at the begining of the year we would more than likely have paid almost double what we got them for now which leaves money to get stronger next season.

Nobody is disputing the financial side of things. Credit must go to him for that.

But to step up from mid table to Europa regulars and then CL contenders, it requires huge investment. That is the point where Ashley has to convince me that he is ambitious.

He may be happy to sit mid table and occasionally flirt with Europa. That way he will make a profit and have an advertising vehicle for SD.

Though its early doors I have yet to be convinced that he wants to invest that extra amount to make Europe season in season out. He failed to ensure it in the summer. I will see what he does this summer.

I can’t see how any of us can honestly believe he wants us to reach the CL. That requires massive investment.

Really there is now a long list of evidence that Ashley does have the club heading in the right direction and is ambitious for the club, including a remarkable array of talent for a club recently relegated and sound financial management. Admittedly the copybook is marked, by errors of judgement, some of them quite shitty, such as the renaming of the ground and the wonga fiasco. But to say there is not enough evidence to believe Ashley does have sound intentions for the club doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny anymore.

Sound intentions for me, on the evidence witnessed so far, are an established premier side providing an advertising vehicle for SD.

I’ve yet to see ambition to maintain at least Europa status. The players brought in should have been bought in the summer and not January when we were flirting with relegation.

It’s a simple point being lost on you. He may well go on to invest and try and break in the top 4 in the next couple of seasons. I’m just saying, until I witness it then I will remain sceptical.

To challenge for a top 4 spot requires a certain amount of gambling. If you invest in a strong squad and pay high wages then you must qualify or you run the risk of it backfiring.

We never recovered after we dropped out the CL under SBR.

We obviously must take it one step at a time. To establish ourselves as a Europa team but again that will require more investment. We will require at least one top striker this summer and we will see if that is done.

His past actions are evidence that he’s built a ship which is now floating in choppy seas instead of a storm. Until I see the ship anchor in a European port for a few seasons then I will remain a pirate ready for mutiny.

In honor of two dedicated Newcastle fans, who lost their lives supporting Newcastle United, when their passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday July 17th, 2014 by rebels, as they were traveling to support the team in New Zealand.

We will never forget them.

Health Update - 1 August, 2015

I must admit I hold my breath every six months as I go through medical tests to measure my PSA count.

But good news early last week that the PSA count is still undetectable, and that means the prostate cancer is still under control, and there is no trace of cancer in the body.

Ed Harrison

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Fantasy League

Thanks to reader Lewis Spiers, who has kindly set up the Fantasy League for our readers.

“Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it.

It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes."

“It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city."

“It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”